December 7, 20134-Ozomatli 1-Tochtli 2-Tochtli (4-Monkey 1-Rabbit 2-Rabbit)5th day of the Antinous Fortuna Moon☉ in 15° Sagittarii : ☽ in 20° Aquarii : dies Saturni : Anno ⅠⅤⅹⅹⅰ æræ legisDIES SATURNI A.D. VIII KAL. DEC. MMDCCLXVI A.U.C.???th day of “I have already been killed for my imperfections”220th day of “the seed that weaves an abundance of belonging, taking our splintered lives and growing a living web of interconnectedness. The intention of strength together, an equilibrium of giving and receiving.”178th day of “I dance in right relationship with desire in every moment”37th day of “We sacrifice that which keeps us from living in love”

Today is the Hermaia Eriounia, modern festival of Hermes Luck-Bringer! It’s a day for games, role-reversal, and gambling, the time to make sacrifices for good luck in the next year, as well as for the kledon, or marketplace overhearing-things oracle. At least one war was fought as a result of the kledon.

It is also the dies mortis (deathday) of Sanctus Marcus Tullius Cicero, good ol' Garbanzo Bean, the great Roman orator, philosopher, and letter-writer. He is a sanctus Ekklesias Antinoou in the class of Blessed Figures, Prophets, Writers, and Artists of Spiritual Homoeros. Furthermore, it is the dies natalis of Sancta Willa Cather, sancta Ekklesias Antinoou in the class of Dedicants to and Messengers of Antinous.

azteccalendar.com: “Day Ozomahtli (Monkey) is governed by Xochipili, the Flower Prince, as its provider of tonalli (Shadow Soul) life energy. Ozomahtli is a day for creating, for play, for celebrating. A good day for lightheartedness, a bad day for seriousness. Ozomahtli is a warning about how easily the noble person can be trapped by the lures of public life.

The thirteen day period (trecena) that starts with day 1-Tochtli (Rabbit) is ruled by Xiuhtecuhtli, Lord of the Year. Tochtli is the last trecena of the sacred year. It signifies the end of one cycle and the beginning of a new one. These are 13 days associated with the mystical sacrifice proper to the vanguard of another age: it is an auspicious time, one great workers united in their goals; it is also a dangerous time, one of great risks requiring great courage and diligence. These days remind us of the old god, the first god, who both separates and unites the worlds of dreaming and waking: somewhere between winter and spring, something wakes in the dreaming heart which endures across the span of the cycling ages. These are good days to focus on the needs of others; bad days to focus on one's own needs. “

antinousstars.blogspot.com: “On Saturday a quantum shift occurs when Mars leaves persnickety Virgo and enters diplomatic Libra, where the war god will remain until the end of July 2014. This means that in the coming months it will be more easier to find elegant compromises to resolve difficult conflicts with a minimum of effort. In your personal life, Libra Mars helps you to free yourself of old complications which have kept you bound and tied up.. . . .In Antinous Moon Magic, this is the lunar phase we call the FORTUNA MOON. This is the classic good luck moon of the astrological year.

Each Lunar Phase represents a Divine Spirit or Archetype. The Spirit of the Fortuna Moon is the Spirit of Victory and Success.

This Spirit is the champion crossing the finish line, the winner of the match, the one holding the gold medal.

This Spirit is the embodiment of the proverbial happy ending, the sweet smell of success, the incredible run of luck, the feather in one's cap, the stroke of genius, the jackpot, the mother lode.

Antinous is holding a bottomless cornucopia with a powerful serpent wrapped around the cornucopia to enhance its power and ensure that nothing untoward can possible occur.

Antinous during this Lunar Phase is the personification of Good Fortune, the one for whom everything is coming up roses. He wraps his arm around your shoulder and says, "Trust your luck. Trust me."

The is the best lunar cycle of the year for casting oracles, reading the runes or the cards or working spells for success in the coming year.”

freewillastrology.com: “"You get tragedy where the tree, instead of bending, breaks," said the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. But you don't have to worry about that outcome, Cancerian. The storm might howl and surge, but it will ultimately pass. And although your tree may bend pretty far, it will not break. Two weeks from now, you won't be mourning your losses, but rather celebrating your flexibility and resilience. Congratulations in advance! “

astrobarry.com: “As your mind shifts towards more distinctly dutiful, constructive and/or work-or-health-related concerns, Cancer, you'll also find your recent outwardly-expressive orientation starts to turn back inward a bit. Though you still have one benefic in your 1st (Jupiter) and the other in your 7th (Venus), a pretty awesome astro-situation (as I described two weeks ago), you're also now welcoming willful Mars into the inner-sanctum of your 4th, where he'll remain through the middle of next year (an extra-long-and-slow visit from a typically fast-moving planet). This bears the likelihood of stirring a fair degree of internal unrest… which is not necessarily a bad thing, if it indeed spurs you to (re)assert agency over your own emotional state, and to take whatever steps might be required (possibly including establishing new ground-rules with family members, standing up for yourself in the domestic sphere, or switching up your residential circumstance to provide you greater autonomy) so you feel you're adequately taking care of yourself. With that in mind, then, use this mental shift to consider which practical tasks might need to be handled, in order to ultimately make Mars's protracted 4th-house visit worth the likely unrest.”

My ramblings/what I plan to do with it: Well, today looks rather clear! Moreso than it has for a while anyway. It also seems to be rather auspicious that my family will be celebrating three different birthdays today (my brother, my cousin, and my cousin’s boyfriend).

Hermes may not, in and of himself, be one of my mup gods, but he is the daddy of one of them. Aphrodite wanted to fuck Hermes, but he would only fuck boys (how many of my friends know what that’s like?). So she put on a beard and made him think she was a boy. Hermaphroditos was the result of that union and he, in turn, merged with a lake nymph to give us the word hermaphrodite. Because of this, I plan to celebrate the Eriounia today in three ways: 1) playing games and having fun at the birthday party, 2) sacrificing from my meal at that party to Hermes Luck-Bringer, and 3) finding some way to perform the kledon, which shouldn’t be too hard as my family is likely having the party in a shopping center. It also seems that Antinous Neos Hermes will be helping out, as the Antinous Fortuna Moon is also bringing luck and powerful oracles. I'm also planning to make another sacrifice, after dark has fallen, to the sancti Marcus Tullius Cicero and Willa Cather. During that sacrifice, I will read Willa's poem to Antinous and something from Cicero as well, to invoke them as ancestors.

The influence from Xochipilli is certainly welcome and likely indicates that I am in sore need of getting back into my writing. I wrote just under 25K words of a 50K novel goal in November, was really excited about it and set myself a 10K goal for every month until I finish the thing. Since then, not a word >.< The last line of azteccalendar’s description is particularly loud for me as well. I’ve become caught up in messy and bad office relationships (“public life”) and am in desperate need of focusing on my noble life. Considering that Xochipilli is one of the Nahua gods most associated with gender deviance and same-sex love, I find myself kind of sad that I will be spending the day with my family instead of, say, the Fairies. Mayhap I should add a little bit to my Hermes Eriounia sacrifice asking the two of them to give me luck in finding the love and community I want.

Speaking of Ozomatli, I’m really quite happy that what Hernestus says in the Antinous Stars blog seems to directly answer it. The new diplomatic turn of events should help me smooth my way out of the distractions of public life. That’s the thing, though, with lubrication (which is what diplomacy is), it makes it easier to go in whatever direction you are going. I need to watch myself if this is going to be as happy as I hope it would be.

Oh, and wait a minute! If I then bring in what AstroBarry says, I take a look at my familial relationships too (I guess Hernestus’s horoscopy is the glue of the day’s oracles). There’s some friction there, some mere inertia from years of patterns and some for more immediate reasons. Today, I think, is the day to face these head-on. I’ve already told my brother that I’ve had his gift waiting for weeks, which came as a surprise to him as my gift-giving tendencies had fallen off in the past several years. My father feels a lot of pain that I didn’t tell them I’ve been on hormones earlier -- I should have a talk with him, I think.